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AN ORATION, 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

CONNECTICUT ALPHA 



PHI, BETA, KAPPA 



BY SIMEON NORTH, 

PRESIDENT OF HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



J 



ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. 



AN ORATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



CONNECTICUT ALPHA 



PHI, BETA, KAPPA, 



NEW HAVEN, AUGUST 18th, 1847. 



BY SIMEON ^fORTH, 

PRESIDENT OF HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



UTICA: 
ROBERTS, SHERMAN & COLSTON, PRINTERS, 

1847. 



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1 1 '• 



New Haven, August 19th, 1847. 

Rev. Simeon North, LL.D. 

Dear Sir: 

In behalf of the Connecticut Alpha of the Phi, Beta, 
Kappa, we have the honor to express to you the thanks of the 
Society, for your oration pronounced last evening, and to 
request a copy for publication. 

Very respectfully, 



LEONARD BACON,"} 

JAMES MURDOCkAcommittee. 

JAMES HADLEY, J 



ORATIOI 



History contains no record of deeper interest, than 
that, which unfolds the origin and progress of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. From beginnings the most ob- 
scure, and under circumstances, often the most adverse 
to improvement, its course has been steadily onward, 
to empire and to greatness. The triumphs, which have 
followed in its steps, and by which its progress has 
been so distinctly marked, have been as various as 
the fields of human enterprise are diversified. In 
the arts of war, and of peace, in the various de- 
partments of manufacturing skill, of agriculture, and 
commerce ; as well as in science, and the pursuit of 
universal literature, men of the Anglo-Saxon race 
have ever shown themselves foremost and pre-emi- 
nent. The position which they now occupy, in the 
British islands, with their dependencies, and on this 
continent, is one of commanding influence ; and yet 
their course is still onward. Their mission is not 
yet completed ; and we think it can be deemed nei- 
ther an empty boast, nor a visionary prophecy, to 
which we give utterance, in expressing our convic- 
tion, that when the drama of this world's progress 
shall have been closed, no race of men will be seen 
to have acted upon its theatre, a more conspicuous 
part, or to have left more indelible marks of power 
and influence on the pages of its history. 



In the intellectual development, which has accom- 
panied this progress of the Anglo-Saxon race ; and 
more especially, in that noble body of literature, 
which has hence sprung up, we are presented with 
a theme, alike interesting to every English and 
American scholar ; and we therefore deem it one not 
unsuited to the occasion, on which we are assembled. 
Our object will be attained by a brief consideration 
of a few topics pertaining to its origin, its character, 
and its destiny. 

In the numerical increase, and physical improve- 
ment of the Anglo-Saxon race, there is much to 
excite surprise. We are told, that when the Roman 
power was verging to its decline, the fathers of this 
race existed, in a state of unmitigated barbarism, on 
the borders of the German Ocean. The land, which 
they occupied, was too sterile, and rock-bound, to 
afford them support, and they therefore gained for 
themselves the means of a precarious subsistence on 
the water. While other northern tribes were bat- 
tling with the Roman legions, defending themselves 
against invasion, and in turn becoming invaders ; the 
Saxons, too insignificant to find a place in such con- 
flicts, were launching their boats, and prosecuting 
schemes of plunder, and wild adventure, on the 
ocean. The native fierceness and indomitable ener- 
gy of their minds, thus found ample scope. Going 
from island to island, and from one shore to another, 
as the chances of wind and tide directed, they re- 
spected no rights of property, which were not de- 
fended by the sword, and listened to no considera- 
tions of justice or humanity, which could stand in 
the way of the most unbridled lust of conquest and 



plunder. In these facts, there may be little to gratify 
the pride of ancestry ; and yet such was the origin 
and early history of the Anglo-Saxon race — the men 
who now occupy the British islands and the North 
American continent ; holding the balance of power 
among the monarchies of Europe ; swaying the 
sceptre of dominion in Southern Asia ; and dictating 
terms of peace and of war at the gates of the Ce- 
lestial Empire — the men whose enterprise explores 
every land, and whose commerce whitens every sea, 
and whose influence, in labors for the promotion of 
truth and religion, and in the progress of science and 
civilization, is more powerful, and more widely felt, 
than that of any other race of men now inhabiting 
the globe. 

The successive stages of improvement, which fill 
up the wide interval between the Anglo-Saxons of 
the nineteenth century, and the fierce barbarians who 
lived by piracy in the Northern Ocean, it is not our 
purpose here to notice. They furnish materials, 
worthy of the profoundest study of the historian and 
the philosopher. It falls rather 'within our design, to 
dwell upon the well known fact, that in every stage 
of their progress, the Anglo-Saxons have evinced a 
true fondness for learning ; a just appreciation of 
those advantages, which flow from its influence ; and 
that, however distinguished in other respects, they 
have been no less distinguished for their progress in 
whatever pertains to the cultivation of literature and 
science. Other races of men not a few, have lived, 
and risen to greatness ; have conquered, and ruled, 
and had their day upon the earth, and yet have 
reared no monuments of learning. They have 



8 

passed away, and have left behind them no records 
of the mind, by which to instruct and bless other 
generations. The valley of the Nile has been at 
once the birthplace, and the grave of empires. Suc- 
cessive dynasties of kings have there lived, and 
reigned ; building cities, rearing temples, constructing 
pyramids ; and they have left behind them marks of 
physical strength, and of proficiency in the arts, 
which are the wonder of the world ; and which the 
world has never equalled : but who ever heard of an 
Egyptian literature 1 Successive races of men have 
swept over the plains of Asia, gathering in their 
train all that conquest and physical strength could 
collect ; planting*themselves, now on the Euphrates, 
and now on the Tigris, and yet again on the Bos- 
phorus ; but who has known aught of a genuine love 
and cultivation of letters, among the subjects of a 
Babylonish or Persian king ; or of science, among 
the followers of a Turkish Sultan I 

It has been widely different with the Anglo-Sax- 
ons. As with the Greeks of earlier times, so their 
first tendencies towards civilization and refinement, 
evinced themselves in the pursuit and encouragement 
of learning ; and it was thus, even amid the rude- 
ness of their infant and primeval state, that indica- 
tions manifested themselves, of that deep sympathy 
with man, and universal nature, and of those clear, 
and large, and comprehensive views, which have 
since found expression in the riper productions of 
the Anglo-Saxon mind, and which have rendered the 
Anglo-Saxon literature one of the richest and noblest 
the world has ever seen. In their rudest state of bar- 
barism, the Anglo-Saxons held in honor the bard and 



the minstrel, and next to the glory of conquest, they 
coveted the glory of having their conquests celebrat- 
ed in song. The fierce sea-kings of the Baltic and 
the German Ocean, were thus in their own way, the 
patrons of learning, and we hence find, even at that 
early period, amid the frosts and tempests of the 
north, the germs of English history and English poe- 
try springing up, and giving promise of their future 
growth. We do not indeed suppose that upon 
their native soil, those germs could have ripened to 
that full and vigorous maturity, which they have 
since attained. On such a soil, the national mind 
lacked the nourishment requisite to its growth, and 
it was not until by conquest, it had planted itself on 
the British islands, it found those auspicious circum- 
stances, without which it might never have reached 
the full and perfect development of its capacities. 

Let us here then, as bearing directly upon the 
origin of Anglo-Saxon literature, briefly notice some 
of the circumstances, to which it was thus introduc- 
ed ; and which served alike, to call into exercise the 
national mind, and to give character to its produc- 
tions. 

We may mention first, the new and more conge- 
nial aspects of nature, with which it became conver- 
sant. Intellectual growth, manifesting itself in the 
various departments of literature and science, is not 
the mere product of original genius. Causes from 
without must co-operate with native and internal 
energies ; and thus become to those energies, what 
the dew, and the rain, and the sunshine are to seed 
buried in the earth. The ground on which men 
tread, and the overhanging sky ; the valley, the river, 

B 



10 



and the waterfall ; the hill-side, and the mountain- 
top — nature in all her aspects contribute to the 
growth and development of genius ; and as they 
vary, they present that genius under new forms, and 
with varied characteristics. It is thus with the indi- 
vidual mind, and thus with the genius of nations. 
On entering upon the occupancy of the British 
islands, the Anglo-Saxons, accordingly, met with the 
elements of a new intellectual existence. They 
there found a climate comparatively mild. They 
found scenery, not only greatly diversified, but 
abounding in all the elements of beauty and sub- 
limity. It was but natural, then, that the sterner 
features of the Anglo-Saxon character should be 
softened down, and that whatever tendencies towards 
intellectual and literary pursuits had already devel- 
oped themselves in the national mind, should be 
strengthened and improved. 

But, while in the British islands the Anglo-Saxons 
were introduced to new physical circumstances, they 
also there met with influences, which greatly modi- 
fied and improved their language, and which render- 
ed it a more suitable instrument for embodying and 
expressing the thoughts of a great and intellectual 
people. The languages spoken, and to some extent 
prevailing in Britain during the earlier times of its 
history, were as numerous as the nations which con- 
tended forks possession. Dialects of British, Latin 
and Saxon, of Danish and Norman origin, were 
there blended together in wild confusion ; and that 
from such a chaos of discordant materials should 
have sprung a language like the English, as it now 
appears, in the higher productions of the poet and 



11 

orator, we can never cease to wonder. Nor is it 
easy elsewhere to find a parallel to such a phenome- 
non, unless it be in those gradual and silent processes 
of nature, by which the crystal, and the flower, and 
the unnumbered forms of beauty, which now over- 
spread the face of the earth, have been made to 
emerge from that state of the world, in which it was 
absolutely without form and void. In this conflict 
with other dialects, the Saxon element lost, what the 
national character lost, its rudeness and barbarism. 
While it retained its own inherent power, it borrow- 
ed from others refinement, and copiousness, and 
flexibility. It became thus, adequate to all the 
purposes of literature ; an instrument worthy of 
being employed in the highest and best efforts of the 
poet, the orator, and the philosopher. 

But we deem it also worthy of notice, that in the 
British islands the Anglo-Saxon mind found a field, 
which afforded the most ample scope to its capaci- 
ties for improvement and enterprise. Such a field 
had hitherto been entirely wanting ; and without it, 
those capacities might have remained forever dor- 
mant and inactive. In the defence of their newly 
acquired country, the Anglo-Saxons found ample 
exercise for that warlike spirit, which had hitherto 
shown itself in expeditions of piracy and plunder. 
Its exhaustless stores of mineral wealth held out 
inducements to the exercise of manufacturing skill. 
In the cultivation of its soil, they had an abundant 
reward for the labors of the husbandman. In its 
rivers they were furnished with channels of commu- 
nication with the ocean, capable of floating the su- 
perabundant products of the country, and inviting 



12 

them to embark in distant enterprises of commerce 
and navigation. In these circumstances existed the 
elements of national wealth and greatness ; and in 
the Anglo-Saxon mind was not wanting the spirit, 
requisite to appropriate and improve them to the 
best advantage. Improvements in letters kept pace 
with improvements in other departments of effort. 
Accumulating wealth brought with it leisure, and 
leisure found for itself a befitting employment, in the 
cultivation of learning. Not only so, there was in 
the national mind an inherent love of knowledge — 
an irrepressible spirit of inquiry, which, if not inde- 
pendent of circumstances, yet evinced its strength, 
by making circumstances subservient to its purpose. 
Long before the Norman conquest, and while as yet, 
the islaud was overrun by successive hordes of 
Danish pirates, schools of learning sprang up. Even 
then, in retired places, men of the cloister were 
keeping their vigils, over the scanty remains of Gre- 
cian and Roman learning : and with what success 
and zeal they pursued their studies, we may infer, 
when we find among their number, such scholars as 
the learned Aldhelm, the venerable Bede, and Al- 
binus, the friend and preceptor of Charlemagne ; 
and especially, when we see the spirit of those times 
embodied in that noblest of Anglo-Saxon kings, 
Alfred the Great, — a monarch, whose glory it was, 
that he was at once distinguished among the best 
rulers and the most successful scholars of the age in 
which he lived. 

Nor should it escape our notice, as a circumstance, 
bearing directly, and most powerfully upon the origin, 
and progress of English literature, that thus, at this 



13 

early period, the national mind was brought into 
intimate communion, with the spirit of Classical 
antiquity. The authors of Greece and Rome, be- 
came to the first cultivators of Anglo-Saxon letters, 
what they have been, to the scholars of every country 
of modern Europe, in which literature has flourished 
— at once the teachers, and the models of high, and 
successful effort. They have infused a classical 
taste, and spirit, into languages having little affinity 
with their own. From the shores of the Baltic, to 
the Mediterranean, there is not a nation, whose 
literature is not incorporated with the very elements 
of classical learning. Nor is this more true of the 
nations of continental Europe, than of England 
herself. " Her literature," it has been well said, by 
an eminent scholar, and jurist of our own country,* — 
"is emphatically, the production of her scholars: of 
men, who have cultivated letters in her universities, 
and colleges, and grammar-schools ; of men who 
thought any life too short, chiefly because it left some 
relic of antiquity unmastered, and any other fame 
humble because it faded, in the presence of Grecian 
and Roman genius. He who now studies English 
literature, without the light of classical learning, con- 
sequently loses, half the charms, of its sentiments and 
style, of its force and feelings, of its delicate touches, 
its delightful allusions, and its illustrative associations. 
Who, that reads the poetry of Gray, does not feel 
that it is the refinement of classical taste, which gives 
such inexpressible vividness, and transparency to 
his diction? Who, that reads the concentrated 

* Story's Oration before the Phi, Beta, Kappa at Cambridge. 



14 

sense of Dryden, or of Pope, does not recognize a 
disciple of the old school, whose genius was inflam- 
ed, by the heroic verse, the terse satire, and the 
playful wit of antiquity ? Who, that meditates over 
the strains of Milton, does not feel that he drank deep 
at 

"Siloa's brook that flowed 
Fast by the oracle of God" — 

that the fires of his magnificent mind were lighted 
by coals from ancient altars?" 

Such, then, are some of the circumstances, which 
deserve our notice, in tracing the origin and early his- 
ry, of the literature of the Anglo-Saxons. This was 
the morning of a day, whose meridian splendors, are 
still shining, and whose evening, we may not predict. 
Its history is familiar to every scholar, and we need 
not trace its progress. What dreams of fancy, and 
what creations of imagination, have diversified its 
changing hours ! How has it been resplendent, with 
the coruscations of wit and of genius ! With what 
triumphs in science and the arts, has it been filled 
up! What achievements in poetry and history, in 
eloquence and philosophy, have marked its progress ! 
and what names of greatness, and of glory, are 
found upon its records ! Versatility, as well as the 
power of high achievement, have ever characterized 
the efforts of the Anglo-Saxon mind ; and it is not easy 
to say, in what departments of effort, it has most ex- 
celled. Other nations, ancient and modern, have 
cultivated the Drama; but if it be the true end of dra- 
matic literature, to fathom the depths of the human 
heart, and to unfold the secret workings of its pas- 
sions, in their most playful, as well as in their gravest, 



15 

and loftiest moods, then no dramatist deserves to be 
coupled, with the Anglo-Saxon Shakspeare. The 
Greeks and the Romans had their philosophers ; and 
Plato, and Arestotle, and Seneca are no insignificant 
names on the records of the world ; but if it be the 
province of philosophy, to unfold the truth, and by 
the truth, to make men both wiser and happier, they 
deserve not to be named, as compeers with Bacon, 
and Newton, and Davy. The praise of pre-eminent 
excellence, has been justly awarded to the orators of 
Greece and Rome; but when the world has grown 
older, and the Anglo-Saxons are to other generations, 
what the Greeks and Romans are to us, who will say 
that the names of English, and American orators, may 
not stand as high on the records of fame, as those of 
Cicero and Demosthenes? In those departments of 
literature, too, which are peculiarly of modern origin 
we know of no nation to whom men of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, should yield the palm. The world has 
been flooded with fiction ; and yet, the world may be 
challenged for a brighter name in the school of 
romance, than that of the author of Waverly. All 
Europe abounds with journals, devoted to criticism, 
and scientific discussions; and yet where can be 
found criticism more profound, or discussions in phi- 
losophy and science, more varied, than in the peri- 
odical journals of Great Britain, and the United 
States. But time would fail us, should we continue 
to particularize. 

There are certain prominent features of the 
Anglo-Saxon literature, which deserve special no- 
tice ; and the consideration of which, will enable us 
to form a just appreciation of its character and 
destiny. 



16 

We may distinguish it, first, as the Literature of 
common sense ; and in this, perhaps, more than any 
other feature, we are to find its peculiar charac- 
teristic. Other nations exist, and especially one, 
claiming a common origin with the Anglo-Saxons, 
whose boast it is, that their modes of thinking, are 
pre-eminently refined, and spiritual ; and that theirs, 
hence, is the possession of a poetic literature, of 
more etherial mould, and a philosophy, more trans- 
cendental in its inquiries. It is the prevailing habit 
of their minds — a habit, too, which has impressed its 
character, upon almost every department of German 
literature, to contemplate things under aspects ideal, 
and absolute ; while they evince little sympathy, with 
things concrete, and tangible — the living, moving, 
acting world existing about them, and of which, in 
spite of poetry, and philosophy, they themselves are 
real and component parts. 

A singular contrast to all this, is found in the lit- 
erature of the Anglo-Saxons. The mind, from 
which that literature has sprung, and with which, it 
is instinct in all its parts, is eminently practical, and 
common sense. It demands that there should be 
meaning, and uses in all things, with which it has to 
do. If in philosophy it is profound, and far-reaching, 
it is yet so far true to nature, that it abhors a 
vacuum. If in matters of taste, it loves refinement 
it is yet, refinement without affectation. If it has need 
of spiritual elements for poetic creations, it seeks 
them on earth, as well as mid air ; and professes to 
find them too, not less in the by-paths of life, than 
in ancestral halls, and regal palaces. In its delinea- 
tions, men are seen, not as mere ideal creations xom- 



17 

binations of qualities abstract, and absolute — speci- 
mens of humanity drawn from Utopian realms, or 
Plato's republic : but they are the veritable men, 
who walk our streets, and till our fields, and navi- 
gate our rivers— the men, who meet together in 
marts of commerce, in courts of justice, and in halls 
of legislation ; mingling in high life, and low life ; 
and diversifying thus without end, the exhibitions of 
that common nature, in which all are partakers, 
man character, the plays of William Shakspeare, and 
Such are the men, reflected from those mirrors of hu- 
the tales of Sir Walter Scott. This is human nature, 
as unfolded in the Essay on the Human Understand- 
ing; and as developed in the writings of that constel- 
lation of Scottish Philosophers, who have improved 
upon Locke; but who yet rest upon him as their com- 
mon foundation. As in the Epics of Homer, and in 
the Odes and Satires of Horace ; so in the Essays of 
Addison, the Tales and Dramas of Goldsmith, and 
the Elements of Dugald Stewart, there is something 
which speaks to the universal mind. While we 
dwell upon their pages, there is a responsive voice 
coming up from the depths of our own conciousness, 
testifying to their truth, and their fidelity to human 
nature. But how few hear such a voice echoed 
back from the reveries of Faustus ; or the profundi- 
ties of the Critic of Pure Reason ; or the yet deeper 
profound of Hegel's abstractions and refinements! 
We deem it not enough, to tell us, in answer to all 
this, of peculiar associations, and mental habits mod- 
ified by local and national causes. We cannot thus 
account for the signal failures, which have attended 
all attempts, to engraft German modes of thinking, 



18 

upon the Anglo-Saxon intellect. Systems of philos- 
ophy, which on German ground expand themselves 
into forms, seemingly full and regular, come to us in 
the writings of English transcendentalists, as mere 
exotics, dwarfed, it would seem, by being transplant- 
ed to an uncongenial soil : or rather as broken and 
disjointed fragments, as if shattered and wrecked, in 
the very process of changing their latitude. Wit 
and learning and industry have been united ; and 
yet neither the genius of Coleridge, nor the strong, 
masculine sense of Carlyle, nor the polished elegance 
of Marsh, enlisted in this work of reforming philoso- 
phy, has been able to produce little more than a 
feeble undercurrent, in the deep channels of the An- 
glo-Saxon mind. For such a result, reasons may be 
given, suggested neither by national associations, nor 
geographical boundaries — reasons lying deep in the 
nature of things, and the constitution of the human 
mind ; and among those reasons we deem it not the 
least important, that transcendentalism, in its con- 
tempt for common sense, and common modes of 
thinking, reverses the proper order of human inquiry, 
making the inward and the outward, the ideal and 
the sensible to change places ; requiring us to begin, 
where nature intended we should end ; and to end, 
where she intended we should begin ; and it is 
hence, that Anglo-Saxon minds, trained in the school 
of Bacon, and of Locke, and imbued with almost 
instinctive notions of common sense, find in trans- 
cendental metaphysics, and we may add, in trans- 
cendental poetry and romance, so little in which 
they can heartily sympathize. 



19 

But we find another important feature of the An- 
glo-Saxon literature, in the fact, that beyond that of 
any other people, it embodies the spirit of enlight- 
ened freedom. *It was the sentiment of a distin- 
guished writer of antiquity, that despotisms are to 
minds, originally great and noble, what confinement, 
with the application of bands and ligatures, is to the 



* It is worthy of being recorded as an illustration of the topic under con- 
sideration, that Longinus deemed it necessary to put the sentiment here 
referred to, into the mouth of some unknown philosopher ; for the reason, 
it is supposed, that if expressed in his own person, like the rest of his immor- 
tal Treatise on the Sublime, it might subject him to the displeasure of the 
Emperor Aurelian — in whose reign it was his fortune to live, and whose 
tyranny at length subjected him to a premature death. We give the entire 
passage in the Latin translation of Pearce. 

Illud sane reliquum non gravabimur, tuae discendi cupiditatis gratia, 
addere, et explicare id, Terentiane charissime, quod nuper quaesivit quidam 
ex Philosophis, dicens, Miror ego, perinde ac multi alii, qui fiat ut in aetate 
nostra sint ingenia ad persuadenduin maxime apta et in forensibus causis trac- 
tandis perita, acriaque et aspera, et praecipue ad suavitates scriptorum facta ; 
non vero jam sint (si rarum quiddam excipias) sublimia valde et magnifica : 
tanta prorsus in hac parte scriptorum 6terilitas saeculum circumdat. Num 
mehercule (dixit) credendum est trito illi dicto, Rempublicam esse bonam 
nutricem magnorum ingeniorum, quacum sola fere viri excellentes in scrip tis 
et viguerint et mortui sint ? Libertas enim (dicit aliquis) apta est et ad nutri- 
endas cogitationes magnanimorum spemque mis faciendam, et simul ad urgen- 
dum eorum studium mutuae contentionis semulationisque de principatu elo- 
quentiae. Praeterea quia proposita sunt in Rebuspublicis certaminis praemia, 
egregiae animi dotes Rhetorum semper exercitatae acuuntur et quasi terendo 
excutiuntur, et cum rebus una (uti par est) liberae effulgent. Nos vero 
hodieni (dixit) videmur a pueritia imbuti esse justa servitute ; moribus ejus 
institutisque ex teneris jam cogitationibus tantum non quasi fasciis involuti, 
neque unquam degustantes fontem ilium scriptorum, pulcherrimum et natur- 
alem maxime (Libertatem, dixit, volo :) quare nihil evadimus, nisi adulatores 
magnifici : Addidit, alias propterea facilitates etiam in famulos cadere, servum 
vero neminem fieri Rhetorem : statim enim prorumpit illud quod illiberale 
est, quodque quasi custodia eum tenet semper a consuetudine subactum: 
nam (secundum Homerum) " dimidium virtutis aufert dies servitutis" Quem- 
admodum igitur (si quidem, inquit, verum est id, quod audio) arculae, in 
quibus Pygmaei, vocati nani, nutriuntur, non solum, impediunt incrementa 
eorum qui in illis includuntur, sed etiam contrahunt eos circumposito corpor- 
ibus vinculo ; ita aliquis possit appellare omnem servitutem (licet sit justis- 
sima) arculam animi et puplicum carcerem.— De Sublimitate, §44. 



20 

body — the means of converting men, into dwarfs, and 
pigmies. Such minds can be expected to find their 
full and perfect development, only on the soil of free- 
dom ; and if this be true of individual minds, may it 
not be true, of the collective mind of a great people? 
Tyrannical governments derive their being, and sup- 
port from influences, which are utterly hostile to in- 
tellectual improvement. They are themselves the 
offspring of ignorance ; and it is by planting senti- 
nels, in the very avenues of light, and knowledge, that 
they perpetuate their own existence. The atmos- 
phere, which they create, and diffuse, is heavy and de- 
pressing. Genius does not breathe freely, in such an 
atmosphere. It can derive from such an atmosphere 
no support, to sustain its upward movements. As well 
might we expect the joy, and cheerfulness of domes- 
tic life, in the cell of the convict, or from the galley- 
slave, as under such circumstances, look for a full de 
velopment of the highest attributes of the human 
mind. A nation thus depressed, and weighed down, 
may have generals ; but it cannot possess orators. It 
may rear pyramids ; but it cannot produce poems. 

If we are reminded of apparent exceptions to what 
has now been said, I answer that such exceptions are 
only in appearance. The elements of freedom are 
sometimes found in monarchies ; as those of despot- 
ism, at times appear in democracies. It is of things, 
and influences, and not of names, that I now speak. 
The language, and literature of Rome, were the pro- 
duct, not of Roman despotism ; but of Roman free- 
dom. It was in the struggles of the tribuneship, and 
the consulate, that the national mind was roused, 
and developed. It was the impulse, which it receiv- 



21 

ed in the times of Brutus, and the Gracchi, which en- 
abled it to hold on its way, in spite of the .obstruc- 
tions thrown in its path, by the Neroes, and Calligu- 
las of a subsequent age. Where, and when too, was 
it, that Grecian letters most flourished I Was it 
under the iron rule of Lycurgus ; or in the court of 
Macedon 1 It was rather, in that most turbulent of 
popular governments, the Athenian democracy. It 
was there, that philosophy pitched her tent, in the 
groves of the Academy, and in the walks of the 
Lyceum. There poetry strung the lyre, and found 
a responsive voice in the ode and the drama. There 
too, dwelt the historic muse, and the genius of elo- 
quence. Times may change ; but the names of 
Athenian greatness, are the inheritance of all times ; 
and while those names are cherished and remem- 
bered, the world will not want evidence, that free- 
dom is the true nurse of genius. 

But what freedom did for the Greeks and Romans, 
it has done, in a still higher degree, for the Anglo- 
Saxons. Its influence has been more steadily felt, 
its claims more fully recognized, as their intellectual 
character has been developed, and productions mul- 
tiplied, in the various departments, of their literature. 
That, which a Roman historian* deemed a singular 
felicity of his own times, — that he might entertain 
what sentiments he pleased, and give utterance, to 
those which he entertained, has with rare excep- 
tions, been the right of Anglo-Saxons, of every age, 
If this right has been kept from abuse, by salutary 



Tacitus 1. Lib. 1 Cap. 



22 

laws, on the one hand ; it has also been guarded from 
invasion, by positive institutions of freedom, on the 
other. Wherever Anglo-Saxon laws, and the Anglo- 
Saxon spirit prevail, the pulpit hence utters its voice, 
without obstruction. The press sends out its pro- 
ductions, with no censor to limit or control its 
issues. No orator withholds his opinion, lest his 
should be the fate of the Roman Tully. No phi- 
losopher falsifies the truth, because he fears the lot 
of Galileo, in the dungeons of the Inquisition. The 
right to think, and to speak ; the right to inquire, 
and to publish, has become thus the common inheri- 
tance of Anglo-Saxons. They use it, as freely as 
they use the ground on which they tread, or the 
atmosphere which they breathe : and its impress may 
be found, on every page of their literature. It speaks 
as loudly, in the prose of Milton, and the poetry of 
Cowper, as in the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration 
of Independence; and it was the same inherent love 
of liberty, which dictated the one, and gave inspira- 
tion to the other. 

But, there is another aspect, under which, this part 
of our subject may be contemplated. As an embodi- 
ment of great, and permanent principles, in literature, 
and science, and legislation, the productions of the 
Anglo-Saxon mind, are especially worthy of consid- 
eration. I do not here refer to those great principles 
of reason, which are common to all minds, and which 
can be deemed the peculiar, and exclusive possession 
of none, — those essential elements of our nature, 
which have been universally recognized, as inherent 
characteristics of humanity ; and without which, that 
humanity either does not exist, or exists in imperfect 
and mutilated forms. 



23 

There is another class of principles, widely differ- 
ent from these. They are the product, rather of na- 
tional, than individual development. They are the 
slow growth, of time, and reflection, and experience. 
Years, and perhaps centuries intervene, between the 
vague conjectures, in which they first appear, and their 
ultimate reception, as principles of admitted truth. 
When, having struggled through long years of trial ; 
contending with doubts, and cavils, and false theo- 
ries, they are at length recognized, as undoubted ac- 
cessions, to the stock of human knowledge, philoso- 
phers often contend for the glory of their discovery ; 
and yet, philosophers are but heralds, in announcing 
them to the world. As the offspring of that great law 
of progress, by which generations are carried forward 
in civilization, and improvement, they belong to the 
age, or the nation, and not to the men. Nor is that 
age, or that nation to be deemed barren of great re- 
sults, which has been instrumental in the develop- 
ment of one such principle ; and which has made it, 
the common inheritance of the world. 

Now, of such principles, a richer embodiment can 
be found in the writings of no race of men, than in 
those of the Anglo-Saxons. Nor is it of principles 
borrowed from other nations, and earlier times that I 
now speak. I refer to those, which are of Anglo- 
Saxon origin; and which too, in the writings of An- 
glo-Saxons, have found the medium of their first 
communication to the world. Time would fail us, 
should we attempt a complete enumeration of these 
principles. Among them, are those of freedom, and 
of representation, in the science of government, and 
of these, who can estimate the value and importance? 



24 

Among them, are the sublime truths, so distinctly an- 
nounced, in the charter of American independence, 
asserting man's natural equality, with his fellow man, 
and his inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness: and who can doubt, that as these 
truths, work their way among men, removing servi- 
tude, and oppression from the earth, they are destined 
to modify prevailing habits of thinking ; and most 
deeply to fix their impress, upon the literature of our 
language 1 What too shall we say, of that principle 
of induction in philosophy, which perhaps, the Stag- 
yrite dimly saw ; of which, faint and feeble glimpses 
were caught, amid the mists, and darkness of the mid- 
dle ages ; but which only found its full and perfect 
development, in the writings of that true interpreter 
of nature, Sir Francis Bacon ? Let this principle be 
traced from the times of Bacon downwards : let it be 
seen, how it has proved the guiding star of men's 
thoughts, giving direction to their inquiries, in every 
department of investigation, and in every department, 
leading to results the most varied and magnificent ; 
how it has created new sciences, and revolutionized 
those, which were once deemed perfect, and com- 
plete, and it will be seen, that it is a feature wor- 
thy of profound consideration, on which we dwell, 
when we describe Anglo-Saxon letters, as an embodi- 
ment of great and permanent principles. 

But, let me notice one additional feature of the 
Anglo-Saxon literature — that, which is to be found in 
the moral, and religious elements, which it combines. 
I need not say, that nothing has greater influence, in 
giving to the literature of any country its character, 
than prevailing religious belief; and that the reason 



25 



of this, is to be found, in that constitution of things, 
which makes man naturally a religious being; and 
which causes the spontaneous outgoings of his mind, 
to be in some form, towards God, and immortality. 
It is not of creeds, and systems that I here speak ; 
but it is the great, and general fact, that there is that 
in human nature, however fallen and perverted, which 
infallibly shapes for itself, a religious belief of some 
kind ; and that in this, is to be found one of those 
elements of power, by which the literature of every 
nation, is in no small degree shaped, and controlled. 
If proof and illustration be desired of this, it may be 
found, in that noblest body of writings ever collected 
— the literature of the Hebrew Testament. It may 
be found, on almost every page, of every Greek, and 
Roman classic, inwrought with the very texture, and 
fiber of its thoughts and words ; and as inseparable, 
as was the likeness of Phidias from that wonder of 
art, by which his own glory, was blended with that 
of the Goddess of Wisdom herself. 

An influence like this, and one, manifesting itself 
in like results, may be traced in the progress, and de- 
velopment of the Anglo-Saxon mind. As this devel- 
opment has been going on, there has sprung up in our 
language, a body of theological literature, richer and 
better, it is believed, than can be found in any other 
language now spoken on the earth. Nor is it merely, 
in works professedly religious, that those influences 
which have been borrowed from Christianity, are to 
be traced. The poet has felt them, as well as the re- 
ligious teacher. The philosopher has been under 
their influence, as well as the divine. Thousands 
have felt them, who have not known the secret of 



26 



their power; and thousands too, who have cared as 
little for practical religion, as the vegetable cares for 
the sunlight, which gives vigor and beauty to its 
growth. The Anglo-Saxon literature, has thus come 
into existence, as a permanent embodiment of the 
thoughts, and feelings, and intellectual habits, of a 
great christian people. It is the exponent, and rep- 
resentative, of those influences of Christianity ; and 
especially of Protestant Christianity, under which, 
Anglo-Saxons have lived, and acted, and fulfilled 
the part assigned them by Providence, in the great 
drama of human life. Nor is it an unworthy repre- 
sentative. Catholicism may speak in the literature 
of Southern Europe ; but Christianity, free, and ex- 
pansive, and untrammeled, as it came from its author, 
will ever find a befitting utterance, in writers of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. I know that among that noble 
band of authors, not a few are found unworthy of 
their place and origin. I know that among them, are 
some, who have pandered to a false and vitiated taste ; 
and others, who have tasked their powers, in poison- 
ing the very fountains of truth and knowledge. But, 
I believe that such authors are destined to have little 
to do with Anglo-Saxon literature, as it goes down to 
posterity. Amid the heavings, and agitations of 
a mighty current, the ephemeral, and the vile will 
come up. But bubbles, be it remembered, soon burst ; 
straws that float in eddies, rest upon the shore ; 
while that which is too heavy to swim, like lead, goes 
to the bottom ; and yet the current flows on, and still 
flows, becoming at length pure, and transparent in 
that emblem of perpetuity and greatness, the ocean 
itself. 



27 



But, let me also briefly, call attention, to another 
topic, connected with our general subject. What fate 
awaits the Anglo-Saxon literature \ Is it destined to 
pass away, with the men who have produced it, and 
who now read, and speak its language ; or will it sur- 
vive when they shall have perished 1 As a literature 
temporary, and local will it be forgotten, when the 
Anglo-Saxon nations have ceased to hold a place 
among existing empires ; or like that of Greece, and 
Rome, will it still live, the cherished inheritance of 
all times and all countries ? It is a region of conject- 
ure, and of prophecy, which we here enter : and yet, 
can it be deemed a visionary expectation, which we 
cherish, in the belief, that a destiny of no common 
glory awaits the recorded monuments of the Anglo- 
Saxon mind ? The spirit, from which those monu- 
ments have sprung, and with which, they are instinct 
is abroad in the earth, overleaping its oceans, scaling 
its mountains, and exploring its secret recesses. With 
a rapidity unparalleled in the the annals of the world, 
progressive civilization is extending those monuments 
over the face of this continent. The language, in 
which they are embodied, is destined soon to be spoken 
from the Atlantic, to the Pacific, and from the Gulf, to 
the frozen regions of the north. On the wings of 
commerce, they are flying to the most distant islands, 
and gaining access to the most obscure and barbarous 
tribes. In Southern Asia and Western Africa, the 
triumphs of christian faith are succeeding to the con- 
quests of war, and in those places of darkness, the 
Anglo-Saxon missionary is working his presses, and 
proclaiming his message. It can not be then, that we 
mistake the indications of the times in which we live, 



28 



when we say, that causes the most varied, and 
powerful, are giving to the Anglo-Saxon language, 
and literature, a diffusion wider than has yet been 
attained, or than is likely to be attained by any other 
language now spoken upon the earth. 

But, it is a destiny of perpetuity, as well as diffu- 
sion, which we anticipate. The same causes, which 
have secured such a perpetuity to the productions of 
Grecian and Roman letters, will give an undying ex- 
istence to the works of genius embodied in our lan- 
guage. We ask not here, with which lies the pre- 
ponderance of true greatness; and whose claims to 
remembrance, on the ground of intrinsic merit, rest 
on the higher basis. We care not, whether Plato or 
Newton possessed the greater genius. We ask not, 
whether Arestotle or Bacon had the more discrimi- 
nating and comprehensive intellect. The father of 
transcendental metaphysics, and the inventor of the 
syllogism among the ancients, have long since been 
handed over to immortality, secure in their places, 
among the great ones of the earth; and we can not 
therefore persuade ourselves, that the world will ever 
forget the philosopher of induction; or that other 
philosopher who discovered the law of gravitation. 
While the Platonic theory of innate ideas is remem- 
bered we do not believe the method of fluxions will be 
forgotten. For aimost thirty centuries, the poet of the 
Iliad, and the Odyssey has been the delight of nations, 
as he was the delight of the Grecian villages, in which 
he sang for bread. And, as little do we believe, the 
world will willingly forget the poet of Paradise Lost, 
and Paradise Regained. The tragedies of iEschylus, 
and the comedies of Arestophanes are still studied, 



29 



and admired, as they were admired by the thousands 
who heard them in the theatre of Bacchus : and can 
we believe the time will ever come, when Shakspeare 
will not be remembered — Shakspeare, the very genius 
and impersonation of the modern drama, at once the 
iEschylus, and the Arestophanes of Anglo-Saxon 
men, and a name immeasurably greater than either ? 

But it is not simply, because names of greatness, 
and of glory are found among those, who have con- 
tributed to the literature of our language, that we 
cherish such hopes, of its perpetuity and diffusion. 
In that literature, are found elements, which in their 
very nature are imperishable, and which men will not 
cease to value, while the world shall last. As the 
literature of common sense, it is adapted to the na- 
ture of man, and will therefore find sympathizing 
hearts, whenever, and wherever men shall exist. We 
recognize in it, the literature of enlightened freedom ; 
and we believe the progress of freedom, is destined to 
be still onward, unchecked, and untiring as the wings 
of time. Its development, and progress, have been 
signalized, by the development of great, and compre- 
hensive principles, and we know that such principles 
can never die. We find in it moreover, the teach- 
ings of a pure and sublime religious belief, and we 
have faith in the assurance, that that belief is destin- 
ed to overspread the earth, and outlast the heavens. 
It is no visionary anticipation then, which we enter- 
tain — no day-dream which we cherish, in our expect- 
ations of the perpetuity of Anglo-Saxon literature. 
It will survive the outward, and material forms of 
greatness, with which it is now associated, as certainly, 
as the immortal mind is destined to survive the mar- 



30 



ble, and the granite, which commemorate its achieve- 
ments. London may become, what Babylon now is : 
as in Tyre and Sidon, fishermen may spread 
their nets, in the marts of English and American 
commerce ; and yet the Anglo-Saxon spirit will live. 
The monuments, which have been reared in the pro- 
ductions of our language will still exist, fresh and 
undecayed. 

To those who hear me ; and especially to those, 
whom I am permitted to address, as members of the 
Society now convened, let me say, that as Anglo- 
Saxon, and as American scholars we may find in our 
subject considerations deeply involving our interest 
and our duty. It is our privilege to claim, and to vin- 
dicate for ourselves, a part in that noble inheritance 
of letters, which has come down to us, in the lan- 
guage which we speak. Our brethren of the Father 
land, may affect to despise such a claim : but we re- 
cognize no rights of primogeniture, in the empire of 
mind. We bid them remember, that their ancestors 
are our ancestors, their laws our laws, their authors 
our authors. The Anglo-Saxon blood is in our veins. 
The Anglo-Saxon tongue is upon our lips ; and we 
will not therefore abandon our birthright, as men, and 
as scholars having the Anglo-Saxon spirit in our 
hearts. 

But if this be our privilege, let us be mindful also 
of our duty. The treasures of the mind accumulated 
in our language, are indeed a most precious legacy to 
enjoy. But it is also a legacy, to be augmented, and 
improved, and herein is our mission, and our responsi- 
bility as American scholars. It is a mission from 
which we may not shrink. It is a responsibility 



31 



which we can not throw off. From the past, voices 
come up to us, commanding us to be faithful. Incen- 
tives from the future, beckon us onward, and point us 
to fields yet unoccupied, and to victories yet to be 
won. Let us not be unmindful of the position which 
we occupy. New facts in science, are here to be ac- 
cumulated : new principles in philosophy, and le- 
gislation, and morals are here to be developed and 
applied. Means of power and achievement, hitherto 
untried, here offer themselves to the poet, the orator 
and the artist. It is under forms, and aspects, un- 
known in the land of our fathers, and on a scale, im- 
measurably more grand and magnificent, that nature 
may here be contemplated. May we not then cher- 
ish the hope, that on this continent, the Anglo-Saxon 
mind will find the elements, and the occasions, of a 
yet higher, and nobler development ? May we not 
believe, that a new race of Spencers, and Miltons, 
of Bacons, and Newtons, may here arise to enlight- 
en the world and reflect distinction upon our race I 

" Westward the course of empire takes its way," 

said the prophetic Berkley ; and be it ours, as An- 
glo-Saxon and American scholars to hail its progress, 
and to augment its glory. 



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